Flaw
by notaboutcat
Summary: After getting caught stealing medication, Alexandria expects to be floated for her crimes, not brought to the ground. The 100 struggles both with themselves and against the grounders, but Alexandria is determined to survive, she always has. Murphy/OC, slowburn. ON HIATUS.
1. Prologue

**_Flaw_**

**Prologue  
Family Above All**

_My family is my strength and my weakness.  
_-Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

**Trigger Warning: Rape Mention**

**"F**amily above all Alexandria. You have to remember that."

Alexandria Park is four years old when she finds her mother in hysterics, sobbing violently and clinging to her father like a life line. She doesn't understand. Her father pulls her aside later, explaining that she is going to have a new sibling. She doesn't understand why her mother was so sad. She had seen couples aboard the Ark happy at the thought of a child.

She doesn't realise that a second child meant death.

(When she is older, she wonders how her parents could be so reckless. They knew the Ark's rules. Then she finds out that her sister was only her half-sister. The father? A guard that forced himself upon her mother.)

"Family above all."

Her father drills those words into her head. Family must come first. Her sister must be kept secret, or her parents will be floated and Alexandria and her new sibling will live out the end of their days in a jail cell.

Her sister is born in secret, a girl with big brown eyes that Alexandria loves immediately. They call her Minerva, and things go wrong in her first few moments. Congenital heart disease should be an easy thing to deal with because of the Ark's medical care, but no one can know about Minerva. So, Minerva grows up weak in the secret compartment of the Ark's walls.

The family ration their food and steal what they need to keep them alive, to keep Minerva alive.

It all goes to hell when Alexandria is fifteen years old.

"Family above all."

Her father shouts that at her as he is arrested. He had stumbled in one night, blood coating his hands and the words "I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what to do," coming from his lips. She doesn't know how, but a doctor had found out about Minerva and threatened to tell the council. All her father had in mind was protecting his family.

The guards come for him the next day.

He is floated a few days after fifteenth birthday.

Her mother seems to lose all her will to live after that. She gets up, goes to work, goes to bed, her words monosyllabic. Alexandria takes care of the family now.

Then the illness starts.

Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria and should be simple enough to cure, if you have the right medication. Minerva can't get that, so she remains hidden and grows far more ill. "Family above all," is the only thought in Alexandria's head as she borrows maps of the Ark from Raven, who watches her with pursed lips but doesn't ask questions.

Alexandria plans, plans, plans and builds up the courage to steal the medication. On her first run, her heart pounds so loud that she thinks it will alert the guards to her presence. It's all worth it to see her sister looking better for the first time in weeks.

Minerva asks her where she got the medicine. Alex just smiles in return and changes the subject. Minerva doesn't have to know and she doesn't have to worry. She just has to focus on getting better.

But one dose isn't enough to cure her, so Alex continues. Her mother doesn't ask questions, she doesn't seem to care. She just sits in her chair and stares at the wall. Sometimes fate doesn't deal you the right cards. Maybe this was just her way of dealing with cards fate had dealt her.

Minerva gets better and for the first time in a while, Alex feels like her life is going in the right direction.

She was wrong.

The guards come for her soon after Minerva makes a full recovery. They had caught her face on one of the security tapes, holding the medicine that had been stolen. There's still a few more weeks until her seventeenth birthday, so she's thrown in the Sky Box to wait out the end of her life. There's no chance of review before she's eighteen, she knows the punishment for misuse of resources. She asks Raven, one of the two people outside her family that know about Minerva, to look after her sister and waits for her death.

But as it turned out, fate, or rather the Council, had a different plan for her.

* * *

**Hey! So I really shouldn't be starting a new story but I watched The 100 and realised that I am complete and utter John Murphy trash. I hope you enjoyed the prologue and the actual chapters will be far longer than this. Let me know what you think and I'll hopefully have the next chapter up soon!**


	2. Brave New World

**_Flaw_**

**Chapter One  
Brave New World**

_Welcome to the new age.  
_-Radioactive/Imagine Dragons

**_ONE YEAR LATER_**

They come for her a month early.

"Are you afraid?" Octavia asks.

"Haven't we already had this conversation?" Alex asks in reply, turning her head to the girl and raising her eyebrows. The pair lay on the bed clothes that they had pulled off and put on the floor, staring out through the skylight into the vast expanse of space.

"Well you never give me a straight answer." Octavia replies. "Excuse me for being curious."

"Well what do you want to say O?" She asks, before pressing the back of her hand to her forehead. "Oh Octavia, I'm so terrified of the inevitable void I will soon fall into, please hold me as I cry!" She laughs as Octavia picks up the pillow from under her head and smacks her with it.

"I hate you!" She snaps.

"The feeling's mutual, darling." Alex replies, making Octavia pick up the pillow again and smack her with it. "Quit it!" Alex exclaims, trying to keep in her laughter. "What about you?" She asks.

Octavia shrugs, placing the pillow down. "Probably. I don't-"

Octavia never does finish her answer. The pair jump up at the sound of the cell door opening and two guards walk in. "Prisoners 167 and 168, against the wall."

Alex starts shaking her head fervently. As much as she plays it off like it's no big deal, Alex is very, very afraid of her execution. "No, no, we still have more time! I still have a month!" She tells them, backing into a corner.

"We still have time, you can't do this!" Octavia exclaims.

"Prisoners 167 and 168, against the wall." The guard repeats, this time getting stepping closer towards her.

Alex shakes her head again. "We still have more time." She wants to see her family, she just wants to see her sister and her mom and Raven and, hell, even Finn for Christ's sake. The chancellor wouldn't execute someone early, he knew that would mean uproar.

"Al'." Octavia says warningly, not liking the look on her friends face.

"Prisoners 167 and 1-" The Guard doesn't get to finish his sentence, as Alex slams her fist into his jaw and darts out past the other guard.

"We still have more time!" She screams as she reaches the hallway._ I just want to see my sister. _"I still have-"

She doesn't get to finish her scream as the guard catches her side with his shock baton, making her screech in pain and crumble. "Stop! You're hurting her!" Octavia screams as Alex feels a sharp pain in her neck.

Her head hits the ground with a thump.

* * *

The sound of shouting wakes her up. The first thing she notices is that she's been strapped into a chair and that her neck was fucking aching from being in that position for so long, thank you guards. She lifts her head and lets out a groan, as a voice from beside her grabs her attention. "Wakey, Wakey, Sleeping Beauty, you're missing out on all the fun." The boys deadpans.

Alex glances to her side to see Octavia unconscious beside her, breaths a quick sigh of relief, before turning to the boy. "What?" She asks, squinting at him. He nods in front of him and she turns to the chaos in front of her. She is surrounded by a large group of fellow prisoners for a reason she could not work out. Mass execution? Were the council deciding to be more morbidly efficient? Her attention is caught by a dull pain in her wrist and she looks down to find a metal bracelet attached to her skin. What the hell?

There's a jolt and the lights flicker on, along with a television screen on the wall which displays the Chancellor Jaha. Alex's lip curls in disgust. "Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now. You have been given a second chance and, as your chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself. We have no idea what is waiting for you down there."

Alex can feel the fear creep up her spine. Down there? They were sending them to earth? But what about Minerva and her mother and everyone else on the Ark? She couldn't leave her mother and sister alone. She was the one who took care of them. She-

She clenches her fists and mentally slaps herself to shake herself out of this. Her sister has survived a whole year without her. Raven gave her updates regularly when she came to visit Alex in prison. Besides, Raven is still up there. She could count on Raven.

"If the odds of survival were better we would have sent other, but frankly we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."

"Wow." Alex deadpans, her tone unimpressed despite her internal panic. "Fuck you too."

The boy beside her snorts.

"Your dad's a dick, Wells!"

The shout erupts from somewhere behind her seat. Alex swivels around, searching out the chancellor's son in surprise. "He sent down his own son?" Alex says, to no one in particular.

"You sound surprised." The boy notes.

"He's a bastard, but I didn't think he was cold enough to send his own son down." She replies, making the boy snort. Family came first to her, so she couldn't imagine someone doing this to one of their own. How could someone send their own child down to die?

He laughs bitterly. "Well your assumption was way off, sweetheart." He replies, his voice snide.

"Don't call me sweetheart." She snaps.

"And what do I call you then?" He asks.

"Alex." She says, turning to take her first good look at the boy. He is handsome and if it was on anyone else, his hooked nose wouldn't work, but it looks strangely good on him. His bright blue eyes have a glimmer of amusement in them. "What do they call you?"

"Murphy." He replies. There's another jolt, making Alex wince. The screen displaying Jaha begins to break up, distorting the screen slightly. Jaha's speech drones on and Alex has stopped listening.

There's another jolt, this one stronger than the last, which makes Alex's hands jump out to clench onto the armrests, but instead grab onto the hand of the girl on her other side. Alex glances over to see Octavia awake and clutching her hand. "Welcome back." She says.

"Where the hell are we going?" Octavia asks.

"Earth apparently!" She tells her. "You missed Jaha's big speech. Apparently we're the guinea pigs being sent down to see if the earth is inhabitable."

"Oh great!" Octavia cries sarcastically, making Alex laugh to herself.

"Go Finn!"

A shout grabs her attention, making her lean forward in the chair to spot a familiar boy floating through the drop ship. She rolls her eyes as her comes towards them. "Morning." He says, giving the pair a wide grin.

"Get back in your seat, spacewalker." She snaps.

"Aw, why do you have to be such a killjoy Al'?" He asks.

She rolls her eyes. "See if you can still call me a killjoy when you have a broken neck." She replies.

"Rude." Finn says, before he begins to move away after spotting someone.

"You really do know him?" Octavia asks. Alex would tell her stories about Finn and Raven.

"Unfortunately." She deadpans.

"I heard that!" Finn exclaims.

"You were meant to!" She replied, watching as he moves to float in front of the chancellor's son, before making a remark about Jaha floating him after all. "Witty!" Alex sarcastically calls after him He gives her a thumbs up in reply, which makes Alex roll her eyes. She does that a lot around Finn. She has known Finn since they were kids, when they ran around the Ark with Raven at their side. Their relationship was mostly them being sarcastic towards each other.

"You're the traitor who's been in solitary for the past year." She hears Finn say.

"And you're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk." The blonde replies, making Alex frown slightly. There were three people who knew the truth about Finn's arrest, which was shortly before Alex's. She was one of them.

"So that's Spacewalker?" Octavia asks her. "He's hotter than I expected."

"Finn? Don't let the-" She stops as the ship suddenly jolts again, this time stronger than the last. Finn and the other boys, who got out of their seats, go flying as the ship throws the about. Sparks fly as they collide with something, only for Alex to feel Octavia grip her hand. Alex grips it just as tight and squeezes it in fear as they get thrown about.

There's a thump and then nothing.

Alex's eyes open and she looks around to Octavia. "We're alive." Alex says. "Holy shit." Octavia lets out a relieved laugh and lets out a breath, before releasing her hand. There are marks on her skin from gripping it so hard. Alex tips her head back and grins from relief.

"Hear that?" A boy asks from further away. "No machine hum." Alex sits up straight. It's odd hearing complete silence.

"Come on, I want to see the ground." Octavia prompts her, making Alex tug off her seatbelt to join her. The pair jump out of their seats and get up, sticking together as they made their way through the dropship. Who knew a near-death experience could be a bonding one?

"Finn, is he still breathing?"

The relief suddenly disappears, before turning to worry as she looked around for Finn. Despite all the insults she throws, he's still her friend, so she elbows her way through the crowd to Finn, Octavia close behind her. She finds Finn holding the bodies, the guilt clear on his face. "Not your fault." She says, making Finn look at her as she crouches beside him. "The idiots shouldn't have gotten out of their seats."

Octavia looks at her, raising her eyebrow, before glancing from Finn to her. "I keep forgetting you're kind of twisted."

Alex rolls her eyes. "Thanks O."

Finn laughs. Alex rolls her eyes and slaps his forehead. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Getting out of your seat, idiot." She tells him. "Glad you're okay though." She adds as an afterthought.

"How sweet." Octavia deadpans, making Alex narrow her eyes at her. She mirrors Alex's expression, until the group hear a male voice, which makes Octavia turn away. "Bellamy?" She says, before going away from the group.

Alex exchanges a glance with Finn, before following the girl. She can hear people talking about Octavia as she elbows her way through. She reaches the front of the crowd, just as a guard says "My god, look at how big you are," to Octavia, just before she wraps her arms around him in a hug. Alex assumes that this is Octavia's older brother that the girl had told Alex so much about.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Octavia asks, once she has pulled back from the hug and notices what Bellamy is wearing. "A guard's uniform?"

"I had to get on the dropship." He tells her. "Someone's got to keep an eye on you." She hugs him again, just as someone knocks into Alex's side and nearly knocks her over.

"Watch it." She hisses at the boy who had knocked into her- what's his name- Murphy.

"Don't get grouchy with me, sweetheart." He whispers back at her, as Bellamy and Octavia took to some blonde. "I'm just trying to get a good view."

"Didn't I tell you not to call me that?" She hisses back at him.

"Oh well excuse me." Murphy says, not sounding apologetic at all. Alex narrows her eyes at him and he just back smirks at her.

Her attention is brought back to the situation in front of her as Octavia darts forward, looking like she was ready to start a fight with the person who just announced who she was. Bellamy holds her back, telling her to stop. "Let's give them something else to remember you by." He tells her.

"Yeah, like what?" She asks.

"Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years." He tells her, making Alex grin. Hopefully the air isn't toxic because of radiation, because it would be a bit of a let down to, you know, be dead as soon as the doors open. Bellamy turns to the door and opens it, making steam erupt and letting almost blinding bright light in. Sunlight, _real freaking sunlight_. It was warm and bright and nothing like the artificial light they had up on the Ark.

Octavia places her foot on the ground and takes a few steps, the rest on the dropship waiting in bated breath. She jumps onto the ground, before throwing her hands into the air.

"_WE'RE BACK, BITCHES!_"

Alex can't help but cheer along with the rest of the delinquents. She sprints off the drop ship and onto the ground, looking around the ground her people had abandoned long ago. Everything is so much better. It's green and pulsing with life, not cold and barren like the Ark.

There is warm sunlight shining on her face and a slight breeze. She takes a deep breath in and grins. Even the goddamn _air_ was better. Maybe it was just because it wasn't flowing through the vents on the Ark, she didn't know. All she knew was that her sister would love it down here. She had to get her family down here.

She looks around to see Octavia and grins at her. "We're back!" She exclaims, making Octavia laugh.

"Come on." She says, tugging her arm. "I want you to meet my brother."

"And who are you?" She turns to see Bellamy watching her closely, one of his eyebrows raised. She looks him up and down, frowning slightly at the blood stains on his uniform. She didn't even want to know. Apart from that, he is good-looking, apart from the douchebag haircut.

"Alex Park." She replies, stepping over to the pair.

"I knew you looked familiar!" Bellamy says, making both Octavia and Alex look at him in confusion.

Alex raises an eyebrow. "Do I know you?" She asks.

"Uh, no." Bellamy replies, smiling slightly. "But you were kind of a legend among the guards."

"Really?" Alex and Octavia say in unison, the latter girl looking an Alex in surprise before asking "Is this because of what you did?" Octavia knew why she had gotten arrested, however she didn't know why Alex had stolen the meds in the first place. That was one secret Alex was keeping under wraps.

"Well, when I say legend, I think it's more like-"

"Annoyance?" She assumes, cutting him off. He nods in reply. She doubted she was more than an irritation to the guards, since it took them a while to find the criminal that took the meds.

"And managed to evade the guards every time." Bellamy adds, looking amused. "Seeing Galloway get that pissed off was priceless."

"Glad you found it amusing." Alex deadpans, raising an eyebrow. She wasn't expecting a guard to sound so approving of her crimes. Then again, was he even a real guard? She had heard Octavia ask him why he was wearing a guard's uniform earlier.

The sound of commotion grabs the group's attention. They turn to the front of the dropship to see a blonde and Wells Jaha, the latter pushing back one of the boys Alex had seen on the drop ship. Murphy tells him to back off, leading a large group of boys. "Who's the blonde?" Alex asks, recognising most people but her.

"Clarke Griffin." Bellamy says, making Alex nod as she recognises the last name. She must have been Doctor Griffin's daughter. She would hear the doctor mention a daughter when she would make small talk during visits.

"Relax," Wells says. "We're just trying to figure out where we are."

"We're on the ground." Bellamy says. "Is that not good enough for you?"

"We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority!" Wells explains, making Alex clench her fists in annoyance.

You know, she's getting real fucking tired of the Jaha family.

"Screw your father!" She snaps at him. Right now, she is taking out the anger she had on the chancellor on him, for enforcing the rule that left her family in ruins.

"Yeah!" Octavia agrees. "Do you think you're in charge here? You and your little princess?"

"Do you think we care who's in charge?" Clarke asks. "We need to get to Mount Weather! Not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this will be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty mile trek, okay? So if we want to get here before dark, we need to leave. Now."

"How moving." Alex mutters, making Octavia smirk slightly. However, Clarke's speech seems to have encouraged the others to help her.

But encouragement can be dashed just as quickly as it can be built up. "I have a better idea: why don't you two go find it for us?" Bellamy suggests. "Let the privileged do the hard work for a change?" There's a chorus of agreement from the others in the crowd.

"You're not listening." Wells says. "We all need to go!"

He's suddenly shoved forward by Murphy, who mocks "Look everybody, it's the chancellor of earth!" He glances over at Alex for a split second, who watches the group with a curious look, before his smirk grows wider and he looks back at Wells.

"You think that's funny?" Wells asks.

Murphy pushes him again, this time catching his ankle and makes the boy fall down. Wells struggles to his feet, limping slightly, before getting into a fighting position. Murphy glances over at Alex again, before he begins to bait Wells, getting cockier every time he took a glance at her. The fight is broken up by Finn who literally leaps between the pair. "Kid's got one leg." He says warningly. "How about you wait until it's a fair fight?" As bad as it is, Alex is kind of disappointed. She wanted to knock the Chancellor's kid down a few pegs, show him that they weren't going to take too kindly to being ordered around now that they were free on earth.

"Hey spacewalker!" Octavia calls to him. "Rescue me next!"

The remark makes the dark look on Finn's face vanish, before being replaced by a wide grin. He walks away and Alex joins Octavia at her side. "Think you could put in a good word for me?" Octavia says to her, making Alex laugh.

Bellamy makes his way over to their side. "Mind if I talk to my sister privately Alex?" He asks, though his tone indicated that he really didn't care about what she said.

"I'll leave you two alone then." Alex says, moving away from their side, eager to not be caught in family conflict.

She shoves her hands into her pockets and walks around aimlessly. Apart from Finn and Octavia, she knows, or has rather talked to, about zero of this people. When she arrived in the Sky Box, she kept to herself. Why get close to be people if they were going to be executed at any time? Ray was one of the few people she got close to, unavoidable as she was her first cellmate. After she was executed, Alex didn't want to get close to her new roommate as she didn't want to go through that pain again. However, Octavia didn't make that possible. There was just something about her that made her so easy to get along with.

Alex is yanked out of her thoughts as someone wraps their arm around her neck, twisting her in the other direction. "Finn, what the fuck?" She asks, not appreciating being dragged around.

"We're going to Mount Weather." He replies, walking over to Clarke who is bandaging Wells' ankle.

"Why?" She asks, frowning at him. She can't understand why he would drag her along as well.

He looks at her, raising an eyebrow. "Weren't you listening to Jaha? There's supplies there." He replies.

"No," Alex says. "I'm asking why are bringing me along."

"Because." He says, before turning to Clarke. "So, Mount Weather. When do we leave?"

Clarke gets to her feet. "Right now." She turns to Wells. "We'll be back tomorrow with food."

"How are the three of you going to carry food for a hundred?" Wells asks, looking incredulous.

"Without your help, that's for sure." Alex mutters, glancing down at his bandaged ankle, before grunting as Finn's elbow collided with her ribs. She narrows her eyes at him and he gives her a look that says 'watch your mouth'. Alex looks back Clarke to see her looking at her with narrowed eyes and her head tilted. "Can I help you?" Alex asks, raising her eyebrow.

"Do I know you?" Clarke asks. "You look familiar."

"I doubt it." Alex replies, looking her up and down. "I don't think we run in the same circles, blondie."

Clarke falters. "Right." She says. "Whatever."

All while this was happening, Finn has turned to two boys standing with their backs to the group. He turns them around and pushes them forward, one tall and a lanky, wearing large goggles, the other smaller and had been the one who mentioned about the machine hum earlier. "Five of us." He says. "Can we go now?" The lanky boys smiles widely at her, making Alex give him a small smile in return.

"Sounds like a party." Octavia says, approaching the group. "You going?" She asks Alex, who nods in reply. "Good. Make it six!"

"Hey!" Bellamy calls, catching up with Octavia and grabbing her arm. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Going for a walk." Octavia says, tugging her arm out of his grip.

"Hey!" Clarke exclaims, darting over to Finn and grabbing his wrist. "Were you trying to take this off?"

"Yeah." Finn replies, giving her a confused look. "So?"

"Wristbands transmit your vital signs to the Ark." Clarke tells him. "Take it off and they'll think your dead."

"Should I care?" Finn asks.

"Well I don't know." Clarke says. "Do you want the people you love to think you're dead? Do you want them to follow your down here in two months? Because they won't if they think we're dying." Alex's hand darts to the metal around her wrist. Her family might be following her down to earth, meaning that her sister would be free. No more hiding, no more worrying about surprise inspections. Minerva would be free down here. She had to keep the wristband on.

Clarke looks around the group, scanning their faces to see how they've absorbed the information. "Okay, now let's go."

Alex starts to walk, stopping to glance back to see what Octavia was doing. Octavia kisses Bellamy's cheek after he tells her to go. She grins and chases after Alex, grabbing her arm and pulling her along. "Come on, we are not getting left behind!" Octavia tells her, making Alex smile.

The pair catch up with the group, only for Octavia to slow down again. Alex turns her head to see Octavia walking with Clarke. "Before you get any ideas, Finn's mine." Octavia tells her, making Alex think to herself that she was pretty sure she told Octavia about Finn and Raven. Maybe not. She could remind her later.

"Before you get any ideas, I don't care." Clarke replies, making Alex roll her eyes. Well this adventure was shaping up to be so much _fun._

* * *

**Hey, so I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Thank you for reading the chapter and please let me know what you think!**

**Guest- No, Alex doesn't have her own blog, but just to let you know, I do post about this on my own tumblr, catherine-the-fangirl.**

**Thank you to Guest and kathrynwerewolves14 for reviewing, kathrynwerewolves14 for favouriting, and AppoloniaAstria, Marloweee1856, Naturegirl15, NerdButProud, ashtree15, kathrynwerewolves14, letsnotbetaken, potpourri and shugochara119 for following! **


	3. Uneasy Alliance

**_Flaw_**

**Chapter Two  
Uneasy Alliance**

_"But I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep."  
_\- Robert Frost.

The group have been walking for a while with Clarke leading, charging like she wasn't planning on stopping anytime soon. Alex lags behind with Octavia and the other two boys she still doesn't know the names of, enjoying the scenery. She watches as Finn pulls a purple flower from one of the bushes and places it behind Octavia's ear, being his usual charming self.

"Now that, my friend, is game." The lanky boy with the goggles says, before his voice gets lower. "Maybe I should do that."

"Or maybe you shouldn't because that's poison sumac." The other boy replies, making Octavia gasp and shake the flower out of her hair. Alex laughs and the other girl slaps her arm in return. "The flowers aren't poisonous, they're medicinal. Calming actually."

"His family grows all the pharmaceuticals on the Ark." The tall boy explains.

Clarke turns around to face them, the exasperation clear on her face. "Hey guys, would you try to keep up?" She snaps.

"Someone has a stick up their ass." Alex mumbles, low enough for Octavia to hear and snort at.

"Come on Clarke!" Finn exclaims. "How do you block all this out?"

"Well, it's simple." Clarke says like it's obvious. "I wonder why we haven't seen any animals. Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe it's because we've been exposed to enough radiation to kill us." And Finn called her the killjoy. "Sure is pretty though."

"I was wrong about the stick." Alex mutters as Clarke turns away. "It's a pole." Apparently, it wasn't quiet enough as Clarke glances back at her and glares.

"Yeah." Octavia agrees. "Someone should slip her some poison sumac." The rest of the group sniggers and follows behind Clarke.

The group continues walking, soon reaching higher ground. Alex stumbles over a rock and nearly hits the ground, before her arm is grabbed and she gets pulled back to her feet. She looks up to see the lanky boy helping her up and giving her a wide smile. "Thanks." She tells him, pulling her arm back.

He shrugs awkwardly. "No problem at all, saving damsels is what I do." The other boy snorts and Alex raises an eyebrow, trying her hardest to not laugh, even though the boy looks like he wants to cringe at his line.

"Is it now?" She asks.

"Yeah!" He replies. "But you know, if you did what to thank me, you could tell me your name because I don't seem to know it yet." His rambling makes Alex smile slightly.

"Alex." She replies.

"I'm Jasper." He replies, before pointing over at the other boy. "That's Monty." Monty gives her a wave.

Finn pipes up from further ahead of the group. "I got to know what got you two busted!"

"Sumac's not the only herb in the garden if you know what I mean." Monty tells the group, smirking slightly. Alex connects the dots pretty quickly.

"Wait so you two were the ones who supplied the weed to Jackson?" Alex asks, raising an eyebrow as she named one of the boys she knew, who supplied 'recreational' drugs to the section of The Ark she lived in. He told he got it from someone a little higher up than he was. She certainly didn't expect these two to be the suppliers of illegal drugs to the people of the Ark.

Jasper turns to her, an intrigued look on his face. "Am I talking to a client?" He asks.

She just smiles at him in return. Some nights when Alex wasn't worried about surprise inspections, she and Raven, and at times Finn would…relax for a while with the help of the weed they had gotten off of Jackson. Though, this was mostly before Alex's father died and Raven stared studying for the Zero-g exam.

"Holy shit." Jasper replies, the amusement clear on his face, though it does fade soon after his next sentence. "Though maybe we'd still be supplying if someone replaced what we took."

"Someone's apologised like a thousand times." Monty replies.

"How about you Octavia? What did they get you for?" Jasper asks, making Alex whip around to give him a looks that says 'you shouldn't have said that'.

It doesn't stop Octavia from replying. "Being born." She runs off and Alex gives Jasper an annoyed look.

"What!" He exclaims. "I was just asking."

"Are you deaf? Did you not hear the commotion on the dropship earlier when whoever it was shouted about Octavia?" She asks, making Jasper shrug, his expression sheepish. Alex rolls her eyes and runs after her friend. She catches up to the girl and slows down to her pace. "Some people ask stupid questions." She says, wondering how the hell he didn't know who Octavia Blake was. She was infamous in the skybox.

"You're damn right." She mutters.

Their path diverts down a hill and the group follow it down, as Finn asks a question that had been on everyone's mind. "You know what I'd like to know." He says. "Why send us down today after ninety-seven years? What changed?"

"Who cares!" Octavia replies. "I'm just glad they did. I woke up rotting in a cell, now I'm spinning in a forest." She spins and stops to smile at Finn, who walks straight past the girl.

Alex snorts and pats her shoulder. "That was adorable." She whispers to her, making Octavia send her elbow into her ribs.

"Maybe they found something on a satellite." Monty suggests. "You know, like an old weather satellite or-"

"It wasn't a satellite." Clarke interrupts. "The Ark is dying."

Alex stops in her tracks as the words wash over her. _The Ark is dying._ She whips around to face Clarke. "What the hell do you mean by that?" She asks.

Clarke walks straight past them. "With the current population level, there's roughly three months left of life support. Maybe four, now that we're gone." Alex's heart begins to pound in fear at the thought of her sister up in The Ark slowly suffocating. She has to do something.

"So that was the secret they locked you up for?" Finn asks. "Why they locked you up in solitary and floated your old man?"

"Who cares?" Alex mutters under her breath, caring more about what happened to her family than the Griffin family. She steps forward, raising her voice. "So there's no way they can fix the oxygen problem? This is the end then?"

"From what my father could find, there was absolutely no way to fix it." She replies. "He was the chief engineer who discovered the flaw."

"So why the hell does no one else on The Ark know about this?" She snaps, getting angry at the secret being hidden, a secret that could kill them all.

"The council thought it would cause a panic, despite my father wanting to tell everyone." Clarke tells her. "We were going to go public anyway, when Wells…" She trails off.

"When Wells what?" Monty asks. "Turned in your dad?"

Clarke ignores the question. "Anyway, the guards showed up before we could do anything. That's why today." She says to Finn. "That's why it was worth the risk. At least it bought themselves some more time."

"They're going to kill more people, aren't they?" Monty asks.

"And it sure as hell isn't going to be one of them." Alex adds bitterly, thinking that if push came to shove it wouldn't be the privileged who would die- it would be the people they deemed less important, the poorer among the society.

Her family were less well-off up in The Ark, even more so after her father died. There has always been a part of her that had been envious of the well-off, those who were well-fed and there was never a chance of them wondering if there would be enough food that night. She knows she's bitter, but frankly Alex doesn't care.

"Good!" Octavia says. "After what they did to me, I say float them all."

"You don't mean that!" Jasper exclaims, running after Octavia with Alex close at his heels.

"Of course I do." Octavia replies, running further ahead. "I say let those bastards…" She trails off. "Is that water?" She exclaims, getting distracted from her sentence as she notices the screen.

"What?" Alex exclaims, speeding over to her side and gaping at the stream that flows further past them. It's clear that the earth has more surprises set in store for them. She turns to Octavia when she taps Alex's arm.

"Come on, we're getting in." She says, stripping off her jacket.

"Excuse me?" Alex says, not sure about that plan.

"We are getting in the damn water and we are going to be the first people in ninety-seven years to swim." She tells Alex, stripping off her upper layers to reveal a red tank top.

"Are you forgetting that neither of us can swim?" Alex asks.

"Well, think of this as…" She pauses, thinking of the words to say. "Baptism by fire." Alex lets out a laugh and thinks 'screw it', her anger fading. As much as they need to get to Mount Weather, they deserved to have a little fun. The Ark still has oxygen for months anyway. She strips off her jacket as Octavia pulls down her trousers and kicks them into the corner.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Clarke exclaims. Alex just smirks at the blonde as she pulls off her combat boots. Octavia jumps in the water and Alex goes further down the rocks to see if her friend was still okay.

"Octavia, we can't swim!" Monty calls to her.

"It's a baptism by fire." Alex repeats Octavia's words, making said girl grin at her.

"Besides, we can just stand." She adds, standing up to reveal the river was only waist deep.

"Wait." Clarke says. "There's not supposed to be a river here."

"Well, there is." Finn says. "So take off your damn clothes." Alex lets out a laugh, which makes Finn lean over to her. "What happened to being worried about The Ark?"

"I've been in the skybox for a year, Finn." She replies. "And now I'm one of the first people on earth in ninety-seven years. I think I'm entitled to have a little fun." She's still worried, but the feeling is buried deep under the euphoria of being on earth. Finn doesn't reply and starts to pull of his jacket, allowing Alex to pull off her long sleeved shirt to reveal a black tank top, one similar to Octavia's.

"Octavia get out of the water!" Jasper yells, making Alex look up. Her gaze turns horrified when she sees something moving through the water- heading straight for Octavia.

"Get out of the water!" She screams, attempting to get the girl to react. Octavia doesn't react in time as the thing in the water pulls her under. Alex doesn't even think about what she's doing. All she knows is that her friend is in danger, so she dives into the water to go after her, with the rest of the group screaming after her to not do it.

The water rushes into her mouth and nose when she impacts, making her splutter and cough, her eyes stinging. She scrambles forward when she sees Octavia struggling to get to the surface to breathe, as the thing has of hold of her leg and it didn't seem like it was going to let go anytime soon. Her heart pounds in fear as she grabs onto Octavia and kicks at whatever was holding her.

The monster whips them across the water and Alex tries desperately to get to the surface as water fills her mouth. There's a faint voice in the back of her mind that tells her she may die never seeing her sister again. She would never see the joy on her sister's face when she makes it to the ground and it's enough to make a small part of her want to let go and get to the surface, but a far larger part of her was going to help her friend. She wouldn't let her friends die.

She kicks and kicks at the face of the monster, but nothing seems to make it stop, until a disturbance in the water makes it swim away. Alex wraps her arms around Octavia's torso and pulls them both to the surface, gasping and spluttering for air. Her limbs feel so tired that she doesn't know if she can make it to land fast enough, until she feels someone tug her back. "I've got you." Jasper says, helping her by wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling them both towards the surface.

"It's coming back!" Monty calls. "It's heading right for you guys!"

That makes Alex push herself. She kicks her legs in an attempt to move herself and help Jasper pull them both to the rocks. They soon reach the surface and Alex throws herself and Octavia up onto the rocks. She lies back and coughs the water out of her mouth, before inhaling the fresh air deeply.

She turns on her side to see Clarke ripping off a piece of Jasper's shirt to bandage the wound on Octavia's leg. "Thank you." Octavia says, pulling Jasper into a hug.

When she pulls back, Alex looks at Jasper and grins. "Well what do you know." She says. "Saving damsels really is what you do." She pulls him into a hug as well. "Thank you."

"Note to self." Monty says. "Next time, save the girls." At that, Alex lets out a breathless laugh.

* * *

They soon settled for the night in an area sheltered from the rain, which had started about an hour or two after they had started to walk again after Clarke bandaged up Octavia's leg. Alex had stood in the rain for a minute, still amazed by the earth.

She wakes up the next morning as dawn breaks, with a mouthful of brown hair and Octavia's arm slung across her. She's no stranger to this. They used to pull the bedding onto the floor in their cell and talk while they lay on it, sometimes falling asleep like that. Alex would often wake up with an arm or a leg over her. She sits up, after pulling Octavia's arm off her and placing it down gently. She stiffens as Octavia stirs and rolls over, letting out a quiet sigh of relief when she didn't wake up.

She gets up and shuffles out of their shelter, smiling as she breathes in the fresh morning air and watches the sky lighten. It's beautiful down here, so much so that she knows Minerva is going to love it. Her sister was the one who was fascinated by earth, not her. Mainly because Minerva spent most of her time reading about earth in the books Alex gave to her.

She feels bad for taking the break yesterday. The euphoria from earth is still there, but now it's waned slightly, especially since Octavia nearly got her leg bitten off. She remembers The Ark is dying and it may be possible that in a few months, her sister and her mother would suffocate in a rig that had been their family's home for years, and she had decided to forget about that and go for a swim. She feels like an idiot.

She sighs and begins to walk, going to the river which was close to their shelter. It wasn't that far from where she and Octavia nearly drowned, as they couldn't go much further with Octavia's leg. Finn had to carry her for the rest of the way and Alex could tell Octavia wasn't complaining.

Alex walks down the path, hoping to reach the river they had passed by yesterday to clean herself up, particularly her face as it felt sore and stretched. Though, that may be because of sunburn. She smiles to herself. Maybe there were some disadvantages to being on the ground.

A flash of blonde hair catches her attention once she reaches the river side. A rock she kicks out of the way lands beside Clarke, the sound grabbing her attention and causing her to whip around to face Alex. She narrows her eyes at the other girl, watching her closely. Alex holds up her hands in surrender. "Relax princess, I'm not going to push you in."

Clarke frowns and Alex realises that she may not be the most popular person with the princess at the moment. It's probably because of how she acted towards Wells the day before. To be honest, Alex doesn't particularly like her either. There was something about her and Wells ordering the group around yesterday the grated her. Whatever, Alex is just glad to get her alone to ask her some questions.

Clarke eyes her warily as Alex shrugs off her skybox issued jacket and tosses it aside, still not taking her eyes off the other girl as she cups some water in her hands and drinks it. Alex glances up at her and raises her eyebrow, before splashing her face with water. "You know, it's rude to stare." She says, which is what makes Clarke finally look away. "You got something to say?"

"What do you want?" The blonde asked.

"I'm sorry, am I not allowed to clean myself?" She snaps, raising a dark eyebrow. Clarke narrows her eyes slightly in return and Alex sighs. "Okay, I wanted to ask you something."

"What?" Clarke snaps, clearly irritated by the conversation.

Alex's eyes flickered away from Clarke's glare as she spoke, her fingers fiddling with the zipper of her jacket. "I was thinking about what you said, about how The Ark is running out of oxygen." She pauses and it clearly takes too long for Clarke's liking.

"Yes, and?" She asks.

"What's going to happen when the oxygen runs out?" She asks, her eyes glancing back up at Clarke who frowns in return. "Will they come to earth before then?"

"If they know that it's inhabitable." She replies.

"And how will they know if the earth is inhabitable? I know we're part of their test but how do we help?" Alex asks, running a hand through her hair.

"There was probably a radio on the dropship but because of the damage done I doubt it's still operational. These wristbands are probably the only thing that's giving them any indication that we're still alive." Clarke explains.

Alex's fingers curl around the silver band around her wrist. "You realise that if most of the others find out about what the wristbands do they will try to take them off?" She asks. She knows the people of the skybox. Most of them didn't have families or their families didn't give a shit about them. Most of them hated the rest of the people of The Ark so if they found out they probably wouldn't follow down for whatever reason, then they would do anything in their power to make sure they don't follow.

To be frank, she really didn't give a shit about the rest of the people of The Ark apart from her family and Raven, but to keep them alive, the rest of The Ark would have to stay alive as well.

"Why would they do that?" Clarke asks, raising her eyebrow.

"Most of them hate the rest of The Ark. They'll do anything to stop them from coming down here." She explains, fiddling with a strand of her hair.

"Can I ask?" Clarke says, making Alex look up at her, her expression confused. "Why do you care about all of this? It seemed like you didn't give a shit yesterday." Truth be told, she was right. However, she didn't know all of the information yesterday.

"I have my reasons." She replies. In her opinion, her reasons weren't any of Clarke's business.

"I know you have family up on The Ark." She says, making Alex look up at her in confusion. "Your father was the man that killed Dr Sinclair, but I assume your mother is still alive, at least from what I heard from my mother."

At that, Alex gets to her feet and grabs her jacket, her fists clenched. "It was nice talking to you, princess." She says, before storming off, her normal reaction to anyone who mentioned her father. She saw the way other children looked at her after her father was floated. They were worried she would snap and turn out like him, which made her angry.

But even if Clarke is good at pissing her off, they both wanted the same thing: to keep the people of The Ark alive. Alex had made a promise to her father to look after her sister and she had to keep that promise, even if it meant working with the princess to make sure The Ark would stay alive.

* * *

About two hours later, the group now stands on the rocks again, but this time further away from where she and Octavia nearly drowned. They managed to affix a rope onto one of the trees and pulled it tight enough, hopefully enough to allow them to reach the other side. There was no way in hell they were going through the water. None of them wanted a repeat of the day before, least of all Alex and Octavia.

Finn was taking too long pulling on the rope for Alex's liking. "Come on Collins!" She called. "We want to get to Mount Weather this century!"

"Are you capable of being patient, Al'?" He calls back down to her, making Alex simply roll her eyes in return. Truth be told, she was getting impatient. Waiting on a rock side for a guy to jump really wasn't her favourite activity.

Clarke apparently agreed with her, as she called up to Finn as well. "You wanted to go first! Now quit stalling. Mount Weather awaits." She called, raising her eyebrows.

"Just hang onto the apogee." Jasper explains, making Finn nod.

"Like the Indians?" Finn asks, making both Jasper and Alex roll her eyes. She knew Finn was just pretending to not know what he meant.

"No, I said apogee, not Apache." Jasper replied.

"He knows." Clarke calls. "Today, Finn."

"Tick tock!" Alex adds, making Finn roll his eyes.

"Aye, aye captain!" He calls to them, giving Clarke a two-fingered salute. "See you on the other side."

Finn was just about to swing across the river when Jasper called out, "Wait!" Alex let out a groan at him stalling. "Let me. I can do it."

Finn smiles as he hands the rope to Jasper, patting his shoulder. "I knew there was a badass in there somewhere." Jasper takes the rope from Finn and clutches onto it, hesitating before he launched himself over the river. Finn notices this and says, "It's okay to be afraid. The trick is not fighting it."

That was apparently enough to make Jasper feel braver. His grip tightens on the rope and he lets out a breath before addressing the rest of the group. "See you on the other side!"

And with that, Jasper launches himself off the rock and across the river. Alex bites her lip, praying that the rope held and grinned once he reached the other side. He fell off the rope and onto the rock, making the group run to the edge of their side to see if he was alright. He turns to face them and pumps his fists in the air. "_WE ARE APOGEE_!"

Alex cheers along with the rest of the group, unable to help the grin that comes across her face. Finn turns to Clarke and hands the rope to her. "Let's go, princess. You're up!"

From across the river, Jasper shouts words of encouragement to Clarke. "Come on Clarke, you got this! Whoo! Apogee!" Clarke grabs onto the rope, about to swing when Jasper's voice came across the river again. "We did it!" He shouts, holding a sign above his head that displayed MOUNT WEATHER on it. Alex grins wider at the sight of their goal in reach.

It's all fun and games until a spear shoots over their heads and into Jasper's chest.

"_JASPER_!" Alex screams.

"No!" Clarke shouts at the same time, as they duck behind shelter. _What the fuck was that? What the fuck?_ There were meant to be no more people on earth, it was uninhabitable! All she knew was that there was no animal who could throw spears.

"What the fuck was that?" Alex hisses, finally voicing her inner thoughts.

Clarke says the words that Alex didn't want to say, the words that meant that their biggest danger was not the animals or the plants or the weather of the earth. It was instead the _people_.

"We are not alone."

* * *

**Sorry about taking such a long break guys! I had my GCSE's to do but now it's summer and I'm hoping to update more often. I'm hoping to even finish season one by the end of the summer, but please don't definitely count on that. I said on one of my other stories that I hoped to have finished by the end of January and I didn't update until June, so I'm just warning you.**

**I'd also like to thank January Lily for making me my amazing cover! If any of you are fans of Supernatural and sisfics, then I really recommend checking out her story Us Against The World!**

**I'd like to thank laheytrash, Daily Sinner, January Lily and kathrynwerewolves14 for reviewing, Ydalia, laheytrash, Blloom1234, January Lily, Luc324, Olaf Likes Warm Hugz, TheUndeadPlayer, angelangie07, bellamysblake, ravenclawstarkid and tablekorner for favourting, and Daily Sinner, Demure1975, KatieLuccii, Lady-Spectral, Luc324, Mockingbird's Purity, Olaf Likes Warm Hugz, Pjch666, Redesiuk, TheUndeadPlayer, Ydalia, bluesweird, hellodaydreamer, kstritz, masqueraderose3, onlinescribbles, ravenclawstarkid, runawaycherry93, thewolfbitch and xtnealonx for following. **


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